Aluminum
by RanchanGRNL
Summary: HarryRon slash. Based on the BNL song "Aluminum". Angst, deals, and painful love.


How in every visible way you shine  
As if the stars in your wake align  
Almost impossible to malign  
  
But just below where you shine you burn  
Although I know this I never learn  
Just goes to show you I can't discern  
  
Aluminum to me, Aluminium to some  
You can shine like silver all you want  
But you're just Aluminum  
  
Illuminating just what you want to show  
You never rust but I never know  
You can't be trusted, I can't let go  
  
Aluminum to me, Aluminium to some  
You can shine like silver all you want   
But you're just Aluminum  
  
Every time you're near I forget  
When you leave, you leave only regret  
Every time you're near I forget  
Everything  
  
You're so lightweight how can you survive  
Recycling moments from others lives  
You're not as precious as you contrive  
  
Aluminum to me, Aluminium to some  
You can shine like silver all you want  
But you're just Aluminum  
---"Aluminum" by the Barenaked Ladies  
  
I'm a toy.  
  
That's what he uses me for. He put me in his own private toy box to take out and play with whenever he wants. I have no say as to when I see the sunlight or feel the touch of his skin. He shows up when he feels like it, uses me however he sees fit, and then leaves. Most of the time I never know when he is returning. I just sit in my little doll house and wait for him, just as a good toy should. I never complain, never bat an eyelash. Mainly because I know the truth.   
  
I mean more to him that he would ever admit to himself. We've been friends for all of our adult lives, and I know him better then anyone else. His lovers, his followers, his worshipers: they don't know the real person behind the glittering façade. He comes across as something bright, shiny, and precious. But I, his dirty little secret, I know what is real. He is dull and plain. He may shine like Silver too all his public, but to me, he will always be Aluminum.

-----------

Ron put down his quill when a knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. He glanced up from the tiny table and stared at the door. Part of him willed the knocker to just turn around and leave, but another part-the part that was in charge at the moment- felt a burning desire rise into his throat. He pushed himself out of the folding chair and crossed the shabby apartment to the door. His apprehension and excitement grew as the knocker kept banging at the door.  
  
"Yes, one moment. Bloody fecking lock is stuck," he called out hoping that would stop the noise. It did, for a moment, but then the phantom knocker started up again causing Ron to wince at the sound. The urgency of the knocks did not give him assurance that this would be a pleasant visit.   
  
Finally the lock turned and Ron pulled open the door. "Come on in" he started to say, but the figure swept by him dripping water all over the apartment floor.  
  
"Cloak," the figure commanded. Ron walked over and removed the heavy black cloak from around the man's shoulders. Shaking it of droplets, he draped it over the folding chair. He walked back over to the person and bowed his head in mock servitude.  
  
"Anything else you wish for, oh he who has saved us all from certain un-spoken peril?"  
  
The figure growled. "Piss off, Ron. I didn't come here for a comedy act." He pushed his jet black hair out of his eyes so that he could glare at his best friend more convincingly.   
  
Ron smirked. "I think you've been hanging too much around Malfoy, Harry. His character is rubbing off on you, and not the good bits. Not that there are many good bits to Draco Malfoy."  
  
Harry's eyes gleamed. "There are more good bits then you could ever imagine, Ron."  
  
The thought of Draco's bits made Ron shudder. "I highly doubt you stopped by to talk about Malfoy. So why are you here?"  
  
At this Harry smiled. But it wasn't the smile that Ron remembered from his childhood. It was a smile his best friend had given him 4 years ago when Harry showed up on Ron's front porch with a proposition he found he could not refuse. "I think you know why I'm here." Harry walked over to Ron's larger frame and licked his ear.   
  
Ron sighed. "Harry, you can't keep doing this. What if people find out, what if Draco-"  
  
Harry chuckled as he put his arms around him. "Since when did you start calling him 'Draco'? You aren't starting to have _feelings_ for my boyfriend, are you?"  
  
"Merlin, Harry! No! I just...don't you think this has gone on long enough? I mean, how long do you want to keep me here waiting for you to show up?" Ron pushed Harry away. This conversation was a long time coming, and he was surprised that it was finally coming out now.

Harry's eyes darkened. "What do you mean, Ron? Are you not happy with our little arrangement?"  
  
Ron threw his arms out in exasperation. "Look at this place, Harry? I've been living here for four years! I haven't seen my family, haven't talked to Hermione, hell, I've barely left this room to go food shopping since you asked me to stay here. And not once have I said anything, have I? I've stuck to our little agreement. But now-"  
  
"Now what?" Harry hissed, his eyes narrowing.  
  
"I think I want out." Ron put his hand to his head and pushed his hair back. Harry looked at him and surprisingly smiled.  
  
"Ok," he said.  
  
Ron blinked. "That's it? Just 'ok'?"  
  
"Of course. If you wanted out, that's all you had to say."  
  
Ron was speechless. From the way their relationship had been the past few years he thought he'd have to fight Harry to let him go. But perhaps Harry wasn't as changed as he originally   
thought he was. He grinned.  
  
"Thanks, Harry. I really apprec-"Just then, Ron heard a low whisper. Before he had time to make out what it was he found that his feet were no longer touching the floor and he was speeding backwards into the door.   
  
His head hit the door first, his eyes exploded with stars. When they finally cleared he saw Harry's face inches from his own. He'd only seen his best friend this angry only a handful of times. Ron didn't like the fact that this time the anger was directed at him. He tried to move his head to the left, a way of bracing himself from the storm that would be Harry, when he found that he was paralyzed in that position.  
  
Harry laughed when he saw the panic in Ron's eyes. "Go ahead Ron, leave. It's what everyone wants to do. Leave me. But don't you remember what you said when I came to you four years ago?"  
  
Ron remembered. It had been a year after Harry defeated Voldemort. His rise through the Ministry had been staggering. No one that young had ever been voted into the position of Minister of Magic. Ron had been reading a newspaper, drinking rum as he was want to do. His divorce from Hermione had been finalized two months earlier. She left him because of his unhealthy fixation on his former best friend. He denied it, they fought as was customary. But the rift that had divided them could never be mended. Harry had come between them, and at the time he came hopping up Ron's porch, Ron had been cursing his name to the high heavens.  
When he fixed his bleary blue eyes on Harry's bright green ones, Ron thought he was dreaming.   
  
"What the feck do you want," he slurred. Harry grinned.  
  
"I have a proposition for you," he said. Ron stumbled back.  
  
"Feck off. I don't need any of your hand outs, Oh He Who is Brilliant." Ron turned around and flopped onto his couch, leaving the door wide open. Harry strolled in through the doorway, shut the door and locked it. It was a gestured that would have seemed strange to Ron-if he had been sober enough to think. Harry walked over to Ron and kneeled at his side.  
  
"What do you want?" Ron said, as clearly as he could.  
  
"It's not what _I_ want that made me come here. It's what _you_ want."  
  
"What the feck are you babbling about?" Ron said. Harry smiled again and moved closer. Ron could smell his best friend, a fragrance that brought him back to the cold nights in Gryffindor when he would lay in bed and dream about what was going on in the sheets next to him. It was a scent that sobered him more quickly then any potion available was able to. He stared at Harry.  
  
"Ron," Harry said, sounding breathless and oh-so-sexy. Ron licked his lips. "I know what you think about at night all alone in your cold bed. I know what you thought about while you were sleeping with Hermione. I've known all along, ever since I heard your soft moans drifting from your bed in our dorm at Hogwarts." Harry reached out and caressed Ron's cheek, letting his fingers drift over his lips. Ron's eyes grew wide, his breath quickened. "But the question is," Harry continued. "Do you still want me?"  
  
His stomach leapt. Tension as he had never known coursed through his body. Ron opened his dry mouth and whispered, "Yes."   
  
Harry gave him a soft smile. He leaned over and kissed Ron softly on the lips. Ron's body spasmed. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that his best friend would truly be in front of him, kissing him. His arms circled the smaller man and kissed him hard, Ron's tongue tasting Harry's mouth. He moaned.  
  
"You are to come with me," Harry said, kissing Ron's neck. "You are to leave everything behind you and stay in the apartment I chose for you." He bit Ron, causing the red-head to groan loudly. "You are to be there whenever I call, and you will not leave unless you have my permission." Harry roughly put his hands down Ron's pants, causing him to gasp in surprise.  
  
"And for doing all of this," Harry said, his hands moving against Ron in a very delicious manner. "I will give you what you've always wanted. Me."  
  
Ron closed his eyes. "Yes."  
  
"Say you'll never leave me," Harry said, stroking him harder.  
  
Ron mumbled in response.  
  
"_Say_ you'll never leave me," Harry forced, squeezing Ron to the brink of pain.  
  
"Harry," Ron strangled out.  
  
"SAY it, Ron!"   
  
"Oh, Merlin! I'll Never Leave you!" Ron said, coming more quickly then he ever had in his life. Harry grinned down at him.   
  
"Good. I'll remember that you said this."

-----------------  
  
A swift slap on his face brought Ron out of his revere. He tried to jerk his head back, but the spell Harry had cast over him held him firmly in place. The four years since that first encounter had been a rollercoaster to Ron. Sometimes Harry was kind to him, but lately all Harry wanted was to knock his friend senseless before shagging him.  
  
"You can't leave me," Harry reminded Ron. "You promised me that you wouldn't and as my friend, you are bound to that promise." He grinned cruelly, gently tracing the red outline his hand left on Ron's pale, freckled skin. Ron shivered. Harry's eyes had taken on a crazy look.  
  
Harry stepped back and looked Ron up and down. "I think I like you like this. Silent, submissive, still. Bloody hell, even your mouth has stopped moving for once." Harry cocked his head to the side and laughed. "Well, perhaps I don't like this position all the much. I like it when your mouth moves some of the time."  
  
He walked over to Ron and kissed him passionately. Ron's insides engulfed in flames. He barely noticed when Harry removed the spell. All he remembered was wrapping his arms around his best friend and being led over to the tattered bed. He didn't even notice when Harry ripped his clothing off of him. All that mattered at that moment was that Ron got to have the one thing he wanted: Harry.

----------------  
  
After it was over, Ron lay in bed listening as Harry got changed. That's how it always happened. Harry would show up, say some nasty things, they would shag, and then Harry would leave. Ron had stopped asking when Harry would be coming back. He knew from experience he would never get a straight answer. Ron was just about to fall asleep when he heard a faint rustling sound over his right shoulder. He turned and saw Harry reading the piece of parchment Ron had been writing before Harry walked in.  
  
He opened his mouth to explain when suddenly Harry laughed.  
  
"Aluminum, am I?" he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. He crumpled the paper and tapped it with his wand igniting it on fire. "I would say it was very poetic except it was you who wrote it. I think you ought not to quit your day job as Harry Potter's sex toy."  
  
Ron blushed, half in anger, half in embarrassment. Harry extinguished the flames before it caught the room on fire. He picked up his cloak from the chair and strode across the room to the door.  
  
"When will I see you again?" Ron found himself asking.  
  
Harry just looked at him scornfully and laughed, slamming the door as he left. Ron continued to stare at the door until finally he drifted into a fitful sleep.


End file.
